Yes! Found it! Hooray! Comet Iwamoto C/2018 Y1: Saturday 9th February 2019 : 0125-0215 + 0305 UT. Clouds finally cleared after a very stormy, windy friday here in the land of the South Saxons, leaving a very clear, cold early morning Saturday, with a few bits of occasional cloud . Still windy but was sheltered from this by the house, as I set up the tripod with Nikon 25-45x60 spotting scope in the garden. Not too much in the way of local light pollution after midnight.The field stars of tau Leonis (fl. 84), and including fl.83, fl,82 and fl.80 made a nice guiding asterism, and was fairly high in the south. Soon noticed the rather faint indistinctly-edged rather small fuzzball a little below fl.80, and found that it was easier to see if the scope was zoomed up about half-way. (Could be seen in Acuter 15x65 spotter but better with higher magnification of Nikon.) Made a lttle sketch of the asterism + comet and towards the end, considerable motion was detected up to the right to pass fl.80. Comet at present not very obvious but not that difficult to see in the scope with enough magnification, although would seem to require a good sky and not too much light pollution. Regards maf

Thank you to Cliff and Brian for your kind words. The main thing was of course the luck with the weather. During the previous afternoon I had the need to go from Portslade, through Southwick and Shoreham, to Lancing to deliver a birthday card and present , and then along to Worthing. With the old person's bus pass, this can be done for free on a no.700 bus. This goes along the coast and wind was blowing a gale and battering the bus on the way. However, fortunately during the early hours of Saturday we had a miraculously clear spell which was actually forecast and, so realising that the comet might be locatable, did some preliminary research before going to bed. And it paid off! Regards maf.

Saw it at around midnight, myself, when clouds obligingly opened a chasm of excellent mag 6+ sky for about an hour. Found it in less than a minute; it was an easy catch in my Dob's 9x50 finder and conveniently located next to two stars, perfect focusing aids!

At 66x, a quite large coma was visible with a bright little spot at its centre, the coma fanning out to one side (sorry, I've forgotten which!) to an extent of about 12 minutes of arc. No tail was visible.

Adding an UHC filter improved the view, as did a jump to a magnification of 110x. Was there some condensation around the psuedo-nucleus?

Removing the filter and moving up to 200x showed that there definitely was, to the north of the psuedo-nucleus an appreciable area showed denser spots, a fact confirmed at 330x and 400x.

All in all, quite a rewarding little comet – thanks for the reminder, Mike!

Sunday-Monday, 2345-0020 UT (midnight). 10th-11th February: Located 53 Leonis, up from rho Leonis and its adjacent asterism. Star fl.53 makes a triangle with two fainter stars and to the right were three faintish (8th magnitude ?) stars and the fuzz-ball of Comet Imamoto making a figure like a diminutive "bowl of the big dipper" or "body of the great bear". The comet seen possibly somewhat larger and more obvious than previously but still with the vaguest of edge. The sky was of good transparency although bits of cloud drifted by and was finally clouded out. Used the Nikon 15-45x60 spotter from the back garden which was pretty dark, everyone having gone to bed. Then thought that I would try with the Bresser 10x50, handheld but rested, and was able to see the fuzzy patch of the comet in that (as Brian also reported here, and Nigel, well done chaps!). Then tried my 8x40 binoculars, and could just about see it in that too! (Obs.#2) Regards maf

Monday morning, 11th February, 0540 UT breakfast time: wandered into the front room which was in darkness and noticed that Leo was still up but heading for the hills, Southwick Hill! Just on the off chance, I turned the scope on it through the window and managed to locate the three stars of the "false dipper" but the comet had, by then shifted considerably to the right, but then did manage, with a little difficulty, to just pick it out despite the light pollution in the front of the house. (Obs.#3) Regards maf

Indeed Comet Imamoto is really shifting. Each time I go to look for it I have to spend a bit of research time on the new starfield I will need to recognise. That makes it interesting though.Completely different from Comet Holmes which no doubt you will remember that stayed in the Perseus for the whole time that it was bright!Regards maf

My site on the London side of High Wycombe is not great for faint objects, though we are right on the edge of the Chilterns AONB. While the camera was taking some driven shots I took a look with 10 x 50 and 16 x 50 bins just after midnight on the 12th. Iwamoto was only faintly visible using averted vision with the 10 x 50s, and I probably wouldn't have spotted it if I hadn't known it was there. But with the 16 x 50s it was fairly obvious, though by no means bright.Robin

11th-12th February, 2355-0050 UT: Clouds cleared to give a good clear sky. First used Nikon 15-45x60 spotter from the back garden and later the Acuter 15x65 spotting scope. Located working up from Regulus via fl.34, fl.37 to fl.42 Leonis. Comet Iwamoto was a little below fl.42 and adjacent to a neat pair of 8th magnitude stars. It appeared as the usual very indistinctly-edged fuzzball, easily seen in the zoomed up Nikon, and also in the Acuter 15x65, which I then used as it has the advantage of a 45 degree eyepiece and Leo was now high up. I found comet reasonably easy to locate in Bresser 10x50 binocular too. Compared the Comet, using the Acuter, with the nearby M53 in Coma Berenices. The globular cluster appeared 'sharper' but much smaller than the fuzzy comet. (Obs.# 4) Regards maf.

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